Elliman Agents Preview Summer Sales Season on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard
by David Hay
April 2026
Spring may have only just begun, but Allison Cameron Parry is all about the summer.
“We kind of live and die by the summer here,” said Parry, a Douglas Elliman agent who lives on Martha’s Vineyard. “I have so many things I’m looking forward to.”
She’s far from alone. With the summer sales season on Cape Cod and the Islands fast approaching, Elliman Insider checked in with Parry and her fellow Elliman agents for a preview on the market and their recommendations for making the most of these storied Massachusetts destinations.
Parry is already seeing the signs of what’s to come.
“Flowers are starting to come into bloom,” she says. “First the crocuses, daffodils, and then by summer we’ll have the roses and hydrangeas.”
The Cape and Islands are indeed renowned for fantastic floral gardens. For many, the season kicks off with the Nantucket Daffodil Festival, which marks its 50th edition the weekend of April 24–26. Then comes the 55th Annual Figawi Race over Memorial Day Weekend.
Also high on Parry’s list are the golf and tennis clinics at the Vineyard’s Farm Neck Golf Club, a “hot spot for celebrity sightings” where the “sunset nines” will also “save you a lot in tee fees.”
Boston-based agent Craig Brody, meanwhile, is counting the days before he and his family can get down to New Seabury, a prime destination Mid-Cape.
“It’s very attractive for those of us living in Boston, as once you cross the bridge onto the Cape, you’re more or less right there and don’t have to drive for another 45 minutes to an hour,” says Brody, who bought a house in New Seabury during the latter days of the pandemic. “What makes this town unlike anywhere else on the Cape is that it delivers on every level at once. You have world-class golf, a private beach, pickleball, pools.”
He also cherishes the small moments—“the rhythm of life there that you can’t fully appreciate until you’re in it”—like spending afternoons at the Lure, the community’s private beachfront restaurant, watching a ballgame at the bar, running into neighbors he’s come to know over the years, and catching up with friends over long lunches.
“It’s not just a place to own a home,” Brody says. “It’s a place where you build a life and a social world around it. I’ve been missing it.”
Nicole Tirapelli, a year-round resident of Nantucket who works out of the Elliman office office on Oak Street, says “this summer, I’m most excited about building on the momentum of the Nantucket Music Foundation—a nonprofit focused on bringing the island together through live music. The foundation is putting on 34 shows at The Muse with artists like Yacht Rock Revue, the Monsters, and Toad the Wet Sprocket." Of course, she expects to be very busy with new clients. “Turn-key homes in prime locations—Cliff, Brant Point, Town, Sconset, Surfside—continue to see very strong demand.”
Provincetown-based agent Michael McCaffrey is champing at the bit to witness his hometown come back to life.
“My perfect summer day starts with coffee and a walk along the harbor here,” McCaffrey shares. “Often, I follow that by a drive through the dunes in Truro and south to Wellfleet for oysters and an afternoon at the beach. I’ll end up watching the sunset as the fishing boats come back into the harbor and both locals and visitors—all on bikes—make it back from the ocean.”
That’s the kind of day that keeps people coming back year after year, he says. “It’s what I’m so looking forward to right now.”
McCaffrey is also very much looking forward to strong sales. He points to a recent $2.9-million sale of a 1,200-square-foot home on a side street in P-town’s West End, as a harbinger of things to come.
“It had been totally redone and was presented very well, but it was a surprisingly high-priced result,” he says.
According to McCaffrey, 80% of new construction in the relatively compact Provincetown consists of condominium units. Home sales there are now averaging $1,400 per square foot, compared to the next most valuable market on the Cape, Chatham, which rounds out at $1,000 per square foot.
Meanwhile, multimillion-dollar homes are the norm along Provincetown’s ‘golden half mile’—the coveted stretch of Commercial Street in the West End that begins as the road curves along the harbor and extends to the Provincetown Inn. Notable buyers in this area have included Kevin Huvane, president of Creative Artists Agency, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had owned property in the West End, and MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, who also owns a home on a nearby side street. Longtime Provincetown homeowner and filmmaker John Waters is also closely associated with Provincetown, alongside residents such as TV producer Ryan Murphy, Emmy Award–winning actor Murray Bartlett and Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award–winning playwright Tony Kushner, further underscoring the area’s appeal to influential figures in media, arts, and culture.
There is also significant activity in commercial lodging happening here. The Pier Hotel, a proposed 31-room hotel on a rebuilt pier that also includes new condominiums, is making its way through the regulatory process. The Crown and Anchor has been bought by Tryst Hospitality, which promises an upgrade for that legendary social hub.
On Martha’s Vineyard, Allison Cameron Parry has noted some standout sales prices.
“In the mid-range pricing on the Vineyard, there was some softness over the last six months, but we also saw properties selling for $20 million, even $30 million,” she says—and she sees promising signs elsewhere. “The median sales price in Nantucket in early 2026 was $4.5 million, or $1,600 per square foot, and it shows no sign of even plateauing.”
According to Johnny Hatem Jr., a Boston-based agent and member of The Sarkis Team, the outlook across the Cape and the nearby Islands is highly positive.
“There’s a significant influx of wealth coming, largely from out-of-state buyers who are paying cash and aren’t rate-sensitive, which continues to push the market up,” says Hatem. “For brokers, it’s no longer about waiting for listings: it’s about creating them. The agents who win in this market are the ones who can unlock opportunities others can’t.”
Looking at the Cape as a whole, Douglas Nahigian from Elliman’s office in Wellesley and a New Seabury resident for 45 years, notes that who’s living and buying here, as compared to the islands, has evolved. “There are far more year-round residents than before, along with ‘commuters’ and hybrid workers who are drawn to the Cape lifestyle but still need access to off-Cape communities,” he says. These buyers are increasingly focused on Upper Cape towns such as Falmouth, Mashpee, Sandwich, and Bourne. That said, inventory in these areas has declined this year, even as prices continue to edge upward.
Over on Nantucket, where prominent Manhattan-based Elliman agent Michael Passaro has been going for 40 years, demand has not eased off. Says Passaro, “the story right now is supply. The key question going forward is: how much new supply actually comes to market?“
Interestingly, Passaro says “the market on Nantucket is narrowing. Buyers are only chasing the best. And there’s just not enough of it. Recent transactions show a very clear bifurcation... capital is flowing heavily into the top end of the market. Demand is real, but concentrated and the gap between ‘good’ and ‘great’ product has never been wider."
One could argue that the Cape and surrounding islands have been victims of their own success. But what continues to attract buyers here—its natural beauty and the myriad ways of enjoying it—has only increased over time. Aficionados of the area, Parry chief among them, want to keep it that way.
Right now, she thinks longingly of the summer rapidly approaching. Parry’ll be dining al fresco at two of her favorites on the Vineyard: Noman’s, a relaxed, all-ages live-music venue in Oak Bluffs, with cornhole, beer, food trucks, and “one of the island’s best hot lobster rolls”; and the Homeport Restaurant in Menemsha, a fishing village in Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard.
“It’s the place to go for sunset, water-view dining with oysters on the half shell straight from the pond and traditional New England lobster,” says Parry, before offering a tip for newcomers. “Chilmark remains a dry town, so BYOB is the norm. Come prepared, and it’s a great place for date night or family dinner.”
David Hay is a well-known architectural writer and playwright. His stories have been featured in The New York Times, Dwell and New York.
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